Normandy is, for many, the heartland of French dairy products. National leader with 3.5 billion litres per year of butter, cream, and fresh and soft-paste cheeses, the exceptional dairy and cheese range on offer includes six AOCs:
- Normandy camembert, granted AOC status in 1983, soft-ripened unpasteurised cow’s milk cheese with light rind mould, 45% fat, 13,330 tons/year),
- Pont l’évêque, granted AOC status in 1976, soft-ripened with a washed or brushed rind, 45% fat, aged in damp caves, 3,300 tons/year),
- Livarot, granted AOC status in 1975, soft-ripened unpasteurised cow’s milk cheese with the rind washed in annatto, wrapped in five strips of dried sedge, 1,300 tons/year),
- Neufchâtel, granted AOC status in 1969, soft-ripened cheese with light rind mould, sold heart-shaped, 11,200 tons/year),
- Normandy cream, from Isigny, a dairy AOC, maturedslowly, 5,200 tons/year),
- Isigny AOC butter, produced using the cream, rich in carotene and sodium, it is churned, washed in pure water, and kneaded, 4,300 tons/year).
Two other products are ranked Label Rouge, another quality indicator: mimolette cheese, both matured and extra-matured, and churn butter.
Milk represents 27% of Normandy’s agrifoods production .

With 2.27 million head of cattle, Normandy has the second-largest cattle stock in France. In 2006, beef generated 20% of the region’s agri-output. Normandy is first and foremost a producer of dairy cattle, and several dairy breeds have been awarded Label Rouge status, while the Normandy bœuf bringé has been put forward for AOC status. The Normande, while the third most common dairy breed in France, is actually a dual-purpose breed that also gives beef.
Normandy is placed third nationally in pig production, at 800 pig farms, i.e. 5% of the national herd. The Bayeux (a cross-breed between the Normandy pig and the black English Berkshire) is one of five local French breeds. Free-range Normandy pork has Label Rouge status, as does its organic pork and several charcuterie meats like Brocéliande ham, dry sausage, and snack-thin dry sausage.
The relatively modest Normandy sheep herd of 212,400 heads boasts three races, the Avranchine, Cotentin and Roussin. Salt marsh lamb (for which an AOC application has been filed) is a pasture-fed lamb that is a particular delicacy as it is grazed on a unique diet of coastline marshes along the Manche shores (Mont St. Michel and Cotentin bays), where 135 farmers raise 18,000 ewes.
Around 42% of the region's poultry is Label Rouge chicken. The Label Rouge Normandy free-range chicken has it’s own PGI. Normandy rabbit represents 5% of national production volumes.

Normandy vegetable production gravitates around certain production basins, including the Manche coast (Val de Saire, the Créances area, Ouest-Cotentin, Mont-Saint-Michel) and the Calvados department. Around 60% of the region’s market gardens are in Basse-Normandie, with 46% in the Manche department alone.
Among the vegetables produced in the Manche department, carrots rank 3rd (631,500 quintals, 9% of national production), while leek comes in 1st at 302,000 quintals (16% of market share) and cauliflower sixth, at 161,450 quintals). The carrots and leeks ‘des sables’ from the Créances area have been awarded Label Rouge status. What makes Créances such a fertile production area is its unique pedoclimatic conditions, with highly specific sandy soil brushed by drifting sea mists…
Normandy produces some 15,000 tons of potatoes per year, and 2,000 tons of cabbage.
Over 800 apple species are farmed, yielding 22,000 tons per year, together with 1,500 tons of pears per year (0.7% of national market share). Local salads and lettuces (35 species) are produced essentially for sale as ready-prepared fresh foods .

The Normandy cider orchards product 300,000 tons/year of cider apples (sweet, bitter-sweet, bitter, tangy and sharp). Cider is made by successive stages of brewing, then pressing, where the pomage is left to form a must, which is sieved, then casked, followed by two-to-three months of fermentation. Once bottled, it naturally produces a mousse that gives it that cider sparkle. There are a host of quality labels: Pays d’Auge cider (AOC and PDO), Normandy cider (Label Rouge, PGI and CCP), organic-label cider, and a collective label of Haute-Normandie ciders. AOC applications have been filed for several others, including Bessin, Cotentin, Pays de Caux and Perche.
Cider distilled in an alembic gives calvados spirit, which boasts three AOCs (Calvados, Calvados Pays d’Auge, Calvados Domfrontais). Pay’s d’Auge Calvados is double-distilled, a process known locally as ‘de repasse’.
Calvados Domfrontais is developed with 30% pear. Production volumes have waned in recent years, from 29,000 hectolitres/year in 1990/1995 to 23,160 over the last five campaigns. Pommeau is a locally-produced aperitif made from cider-apple must, or ‘pomage’, and calvados. Normandy Pommeau (granted AOC status in 1991) is produced in the same zone as the calvados designation of origin, giving 16% to 18% alcohol by volume after 14 months of cask ageing. Perry has been a traditional alcoholic beverage for centuries. This pear cider is made from thirty-odd varieties, one of the most sought-after being the plant de blanc. The AOC Poiré Domfrontais (since 2001) is relatively light, giving a gentle head.

The abundant richness and quality of Normandy milk made it possible to come up with a wide range of highly-reputed dishes and desserts. Milk jam is one, produced after slow-cooking milk and sugar, sometimes with a few added vanilla seeds. French-style shortbread biscuits are made with a flour, butter and egg base plus fresh cream and then coated in buttermilk and baked in the oven (galettes d’Avranches and galettes de Bayeux).
Isigny caramel is produced using sugar, fresh cream and butter and perfumed with vanilla, coffee or calvados.
The famous tergoule, a cinnamon-flavoured rice-pudding, and the delicious Normandy apple tart are both flagship Normandy sweets.
Other absolute classics of the region include vallée d’Auge chicken and escalopes, sole meunière, the eponymous Vire Andouille smoked sausage, Caen-style tripe, Rouen-style duck, rack of salt marsh lamb in a salt crust, Normandy Saint-Jacques scallops baked in a pasty case and perfumed with star anis, the Normandy seafish stew and the similar marmite Dieppoise, pan-roasted neufchâtel cheese with gingerbread spice-loaf, Vergeoise apple tart, and many, many more. (Sources include Irqua-Normandie, the Normandy Regional Chamber of Agriculture, Normandie Fraîcheur Mer, the Haute-Normandie regional council, CRT de Normandie, CNC, SN Pêche de Normandie).
Francis Duriez